an easy way to make a feeder is to get to sticks or board about half an inch thick and about 5 inches long and 1 inch wide...place on the bottom of the hive and grab a mason jar...grab a nail and pokes holes in the lid and pour syrup in jar and invert...bees will be able to suck that up till there's a good flow...you can add one or two feeders depending on the nectar flow in your area.

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”
― Wendell Berry

Peter Hartman

Posts: 171

Location: springfield, MO

11

posted 2 years ago

I used 10 bars to start mine out. They have been in for about a month and are just now starting to fill that space, or about 30-40 liters. They are starting on bar 7 today. I know a lot of people successfully skip the follower board.

my newly hived package has 7 bars of comb already drawn and one is fully drawn across the top bar...

i assume the queen will be laying any day now...i rec'vd the bees from gold star honeybees last tuesday

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”
― Wendell Berry

Al Senner

Posts: 59

Location: southeast SD (zone 4b/5a)

posted 2 years ago

1

thanks for the tips. 3 weeks later I have added all 25 top bars and removed the feeder. they are drawing comb like crazy. One odd thing though, the first 3 or 4 combs are perpendicular to the top bars but after that they are perfectly in line on the bars. when i tried to separate the first 2 bars i broke the comb and spilled some honey. is it safe to assume all of these 'crooked' combs will be full of honey when harves ttime comes?

Peter Hartman

Posts: 171

Location: springfield, MO

11

posted 2 years ago

I think you are pretty fortunate that the bees went from making bad comb to straight comb. Do you have a window in your hive so you can keep a better eye on it? once the brood nest is expanded beyond the bad comb I would work on getting rid of it. If you are not worried about examining those bars you could just leave it as it though. Just make sure you are truly getting straight comb beyond.

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”
― Wendell Berry

mike ellison

Posts: 1

posted 2 years ago

Hello. I also installed a pkg of bees this past weekend in a top bar hive. I used about 15 bars. Unfortunatly the bees have only built one small part of comb, about the size of a credit card. Also, they don't eat much of the sugar syrup i provided. I'm concerned they killed the queen but I may just be paranoid.